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Over the last months we focused on releases of icons and themes, so we thought that it may be useful to release Photoshop brushes and vector graphics for a change. Hence, in this post we release a set of Photoshop brushes for space effects, a set of brushes to simulate the effect of a painted canvas, a hand-drawn vector illustration set and a Moleskine icon set.

In the past we have featured Franz Jeitz4‘s work already (he designed a couple of desktop wallpapers for us) and the response from our community was really great. So when Franz suggested to do something together we were quick to respond. The result is a set of Messy Watercolor Photoshop Brushes, released exclusively via Smashing Magazine.

The set has 12 brushes at a resolution of 2300px which results in an .abr file of the size 27.3Mb.

“Like many people I have an ever-growing library of photoshop brushes. My all-time favourites are those that have a grunge feeling to them. At first I only collected high resolution photoshop brushes, but ever since I started my own design blog at www.fudgegraphics.com10 I made my own and shared them with the design community. So it is my pleasure to release the “Messy Watercolour Brushes 1” exclusively on Smashing Magazine.

The set includes 12 brushes ranging from 2156px up to 2294px. I suggest experimenting with the brushes to discover the full potential of this set . Open a blank canvas and start painting on individual layers. Play with colours and blending modes until you’re happy with the result. What I like most about watercolour brushes is the endless opportunities. You could complete a design using only the brushes. Or you could overlay them on text or vectors to give them a more organic feel. You may even combine them with different gradients. Whatever you do I hope you have fun with them. For more Hi-Res photoshop brushes please visit the Freebies Section11 on fudgegraphics.com.

Unfortunately people stuck on Photoshop versions prior to CS1 won’t be able to use these brushes as they are simply too large. Don’t worry though. The source files used to make them will be released shortly on Smashing Magazine as a texture pack.”

This Photoshop brush set can come in handy if you are planning to use some space effects for your next design. This set, created by Sebastiano Guerriero from BestPhotoshopTutorials.net12, consists of 15 high quality “space”-brushes (ranging in resolution from 800 to 2500 pixels) to create space effects with just one click. Created and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

In Photoshop there are several ways to simulate a painted canvas look in your designs either using textures or filters but neither of those methods are good at simulating the brush strokes created when an actual paint brush hits the canvas. The Painted Canvas Brush Set contains 55 high resolution Photoshop Brushes. Each brush was created specifically to simulate the effect of a painted canvas and each brush can be used in several ways.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

This set contains 18 hand-drawn illustrations which could be useful especially for designers who follow the hand-drawing trend. For more details about the hand-drawing style in web design, please read Smashing Magazine’s Hand-Drawing Style In Modern Web Design26.

The illustrations are purely vector, available in fireworks (png) format. The transparent PSD version has been included as well. Created by Gopal Raju from ProductiveDreams.com28 exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

As bonus, we release a free Moleskine Icon Set, designed by Max Brown from OrangeYear31 and implemented by Joe Mansfield from EngraveYourBook32. The set contains 7 Moleskine icons, released under Creative Commons Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. It includes music, plain, ruled, sketch, squared, storyboard, and address Moleskine notebooks. A layered TIFF-stack of the icons (see below) is included as well. Free only for non-commercial work.

The Smashing team loves high-quality content and cares about the little details. Through our online articles, Smashing Books, eBooks as well as Smashing Conferences, we are committed to stimulating creativity and strengthening the web design community’s creative forces.

Therapix

toothpick

Ryan

Hey Ollie, I prefer using brushes when creating atmosphere and adding subtle effects. They are just easier to work with and force you to think creatively. Stock photos are better for planets/objects though.

Geeee

ilz

I hate to be negative, but this is the first post i’ve seen on here that i think is sub-par.

Pictures of space, hand drawn pictures that you should be drawing yourself if you’re a designer, and bad icons? Seems like a filler post, which is pointless on this website with so many great posts. Just my opinion though.. maybe someone is looking for space brushes.??

Gonzalo LLorens

snnaqvi

goldfish300

carlos

Thank you to all people who make these brushes and offer them to the masses to use. I appreciate the time you put into these and look forward to more. I will make some and get you all back on them. Thanks again.

JayGeeDoes

Paul Welch

Hmmmmm … I think Gopal Raju or SM should give Ed Emberley due credit for the illustrations. And if you want to start learning to draw, the whole collection is fantastic. I bought them for my kids, but I seem to be getting more use out of them.

olivia

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